Good afternoon, committee. I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. We have three items on the agenda today: Bill 8, Bill 9 and Committee Report 6-17(5). What is the wish of committee? Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to consider Committee Report 6-17(5), Report on the Review of the 2014 Report of the Auditor General of Canada on Northwest Territories Child and Family Services. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We’ll commence after a short break. Thank you.
---SHORT RECESS
Committee, I’d like to call everyone back to order here. Before we went on the break it was decided that we would do Committee Report 6-17, Report on the Review of the 2014 Report of the Auditor General of Canada on the Northwest Territories Child and Family Services Act. With that, I’m going to go to the chair of the committee who brought us the report for opening comments. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Standing Committee on Government Operations has presented its report on the review of the 2014 Report or the Auditor General of Canada to the Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly. The committee’s report, which was read into the record, includes 30 recommendations. For the benefit of the public, members would like to explain how and why the committee conducted the review as well as what’s in the report.
The Auditor General of Canada is an important source of independent, professional advice for this Legislative Assembly. The Auditor General usually conducts one performance audit each year on specific programs and services of the Government of the Northwest Territories. The Assembly can make suggestions, but the choice of which programs to audit is up to the Auditor General of Canada. Each year’s audit report is provided to the Legislative Assembly and tabled in the House. Under the rules of the Legislative Assembly, the Standing Committee on Government Operations has the mandate to review the Auditor General’s reports. The committee holds preparatory meetings with the Auditor General’s staff. The committee then holds a public review and questions witnesses from the department or agency responsible. The committee issues its own report based on what was learned during the public review. In this case, the committee added 19 recommendations to the 11 made by the Auditor General.
It is the Legislative Assembly’s job to scrutinize government spending and performance, to ask questions and to hold the government publicly accountable for its actions. That’s why the Standing Committee on Government Operations conducts a public review, reads its report into the public record and moves the report’s recommendations for adoption for the Assembly in Committee of the Whole. The government is obliged to account to the House by responding to the recommendations on the record within a specific time frame. The committee, the Assembly and the public expects answers.
The Standing Committee on Government Operations thanks the Auditor General of Canada and his staff for the work on the 2014 audit of child and family services delivered by the Department of Health and Social Services and the regional health authorities.
Each year child and family services costs the government approximately $21 million. More than 1,000 children receive services annually.
Looking to the Child and Family Services Act, and the Child and Family Services Standards and Procedures Manual, the Auditor General tested the department against its own rules. Four main questions were asked:
First, is there an adequate accountability framework in place?
Second, are there adequate mechanisms in place to support service delivery?
Third, are the department and regional authorities compliant with key requirements under the act?
Fourth, are appropriate prevention and youth programs in place?
The Standing Committee on Government Operations was deeply troubled to learn from the Auditor General’s report that there are serious systemic problems with the delivery of child and family services. The department and regional authorities are not adequately meeting their key responsibilities. Deficiencies were identified in almost every area examined. The committee was also dismayed to learn about the department’s lacklustre responses to previous reviews of child and family services.
In its report, the Standing Committee considered general issues as well as specific findings of the audit. The committee concurs with the Auditor General’s recommendation with respect to improving accountability, support for delivery of services and front-line service delivery. The committee makes additional recommendations on such issues as strengthening prevention efforts and incorporating a performance component in contribution agreements with regional authorities to ensure that funding is contingent on compliance with the act.
The committee is encouraged that the Minister has accepted the Auditor General’s recommendations and that the department plans to implement them. Members are nevertheless convinced that child and family services will improve only if the department’s senior management devotes swift and sustained attention to carrying out the promised reforms. This Assembly, too, must devote sustained attention to ensure the reforms take place.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli, for those opening comments. As we normally do, we are going to open up the floor to general comments. Seeing that there is none, we will return to Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Within the process of reviewing the report of the Auditor General, we had an opportunity to come up with several recommendations. I had this opportunity myself, and committee members will be reading into the records, so I have motions one to six that I would like to read.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Go ahead with your first motion.
I move that the Department of Health and Social Services produce a comprehensive action plan by June 30, 2014, and table it in the Legislative Assembly at the earliest opportunity.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Committee, the motion has been distributed. To the motion. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to speak to this motion because it goes to the heart of the issues that we found with this report and with the inaction and the deficiencies that exist in the department.
We have had action plans before and little has been accomplished, so I guess I wish to impress upon the Minister and the department that committee feels very strongly that (a) we get an action plan, (b) that it be made public, and (c) that they actually act on the action plans. Committee is referring the follow-up of this report to the Standing Committee on Social Programs and I know that Social Programs will be looking for progress on the action plan from the Minister and from the department. With that, I’m done.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion. I have Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the motion here, it’s asking the department to come up with a comprehensive action plan by June 30, 2014. Hopefully, we learned from experience, and first from the experiences are several efforts that were made to try and reform the children and family services in terms of its deliverance and the program and services itself, so this basically says that things should be done in a timely manner and that the department needs to move forward, and we look forward to at least a semblance of an action plan that will address the very fundamental concerns that the Auditor General has raised.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. To the motion. We will go to Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’re actually on track to finalize an action plan, and the action plan will include outstanding items from the department’s response to the 16th Legislative Assembly Standing Committee on Social Programs report commitments made in response to the March 2014 Auditor General’s report and longer term actions designed to bring about fundamental change in how we support families. We had committed to finalizing an action plan in June, and we are reviewing the recommendations in this Standing Committee on Government Operations’ report and we want to ensure that all recommendations are addressed in that action plan. If this does cause us to require more time, we will be coming to committee to seek that time.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. To the motion. I have Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the update. I think we did try and address this in the 16th Assembly and I think we did it late, but we didn’t really pursue it to the point of actually getting something done in the 16th. I think, although time may be short, that is apparently what has to happen. We need to take this on and actually demonstrate some real progress in this Assembly. Albeit, time is short and I appreciate the Minister’s steps and I’ll be certainly working with my colleagues to make sure that this comes to some real realization for people and families on the ground.
So, I will be supporting this. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the Department of Health and Social Services focus on prevention, early intervention and family preservation strategies with the goal of reducing the need for child apprehensions; and further, that measurable targets be specified for the upcoming five- and 10-year periods. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. To the motion. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think it’s fair to say that most of us have experienced in some way the experiences of the residential schools and the trauma in terms of separating children from parents. Again, unfortunately there are instances where that separation continues. We have examples of where grandparents want to step in to help their grandchildren, but sometimes the system is not favourable for them to step in to be there as guardians, as the caretakers of their grandchildren. Unfortunately, sometimes they say the system does not help them at all.
This motion is encouraging the department to look at prevention and early intervention and family preservation strategies. Essentially look at, at least consider the role of elders or grandparents as one example in terms of trying to remedy the situation of child apprehensions. Hopefully, this will be articulated in the action plan that we expect will come about by the end of this summer. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. To the motion. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just quickly, and this is a little bit of what I was referring to. While I support the need for five- and 10-year measurable targets, in fact we need one-year targets and I’m hoping I’ll be seeing those as we go through the motions here and that the Minister will, in fact, recognize the need for that during the life of this Assembly, what are we going to get done approach. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. To the motion. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to comment on Mr. Bromley’s comments on time frame and look at some of the good work that happened in the 16th Assembly on child and family services community public hearings on this specific issue. The hope that went around the communities with the public hearings of raising the expectations and knowing that this 16th Assembly was going to make some changes and now we’re into the 17th Assembly. People’s expectations were raised and now they fall down again. We want to hold people at the helm of the steering wheel accountable. Comments like Mr. Bromley’s make it measurable, not just after five, 10 years, but at least we know that the people who are going to do this work, they’re held accountable and it’s a measurable form. Five or 10 years is a long time. We need to show that there is trust there again for the people who are seeing their children apprehended. Having some of the good discussions and take some concrete actions.
So I’d like to see some measurable movements, results, as a result of this motion coming to the floor. Like I said, we need to get to work on this. So those are my comments.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion, Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As a government, as a Legislature we’ve already made prevention and early intervention a priority with a number of actions in both the Early Childhood Development Action Plan and the Addictions and Mental Health Action Plan. As a part of our new action plan for building stronger families that I’d mentioned in the previous motion, we’ll look at more actions focused on family preservation. We will introduce public reporting on key system-wide performance measures over the next couple of months and these will also include several measures related directly to the child and family services.
Obviously, we’ll also consider the committee’s recommendations on other specific measures throughout the recommendation. As part of the plan, we will be setting short, medium and long-term targets. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Abernethy. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the Department of Health and Social Services investigate the feasibility of territory-wide expansion of family preservation workers to provide in-home, individualized intervention services in order to promote the well-being of children and families. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. To the motion, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to speak briefly to this. The job of family preservation worker was one that came to my attention through the Auditor General’s report and we have one staff person with that title within the health and social services system. It would seem to me that this is an area that we will be well advised to expand on.
The family preservation workers, as the motion says, provide in-home, individualized intervention services and that’s the sort of thing that is required with the end goal of keeping children with their families and in their home and in their community. This recommendation asks the department to consider that and to expand the number of family preservation workers that we have. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. To the motion, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to also comment on the type of work that the family preservations are providing and that this is something that’s been asked maybe in a different language, different forms, different concepts, but this is what I know I’ve been hearing from around the Sahtu, specifically when I met one of the community members in one of my communities that talked about having people in the community itself do its work and not be caught up in the bureaucracy of degrees or credits to education. It requires somebody to do a job.
This is the type of work that is basic, it’s simple and it would be good to have it expanded in all our communities where they have people like this working closely in the community, not sitting in the office. These have to be outside, walking around in the communities and working with the families. This is an old type of family system in the small communities. They were designated. So I think this is the type of thinking that needs to happen in our communities and I strongly urge the government to implement these types of family preservation workers in all our communities, then I believe you’ll see a reduction of family issues. If this project here hits the ground, I think it will be far more beneficial. We need to have more of this type of thinking in the department and get away from the other type of thinking as to how to take care of the situation here. So, I really like this motion here.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. To the motion. Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I look forward to the department providing a comprehensive framework and action plan, and I look forward to how this matter will be addressed. But one thing for certain that I think government needs to do is more likely an interdepartmental cooperation.
This motion seems to suggest that the family preservation workers initiative should be elevated to a territory-wide level, but at the same time, right in the communities we have home care program workers. I think we have to get beyond this idea of working in silos. There has to be some interconnections and also, at the same time, a level of coordination. We would like to ensure that we do at least discuss broadly in terms of the framework of how it is that we’re supposed to address the concerns that were raised by the Auditor General. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. To the motion. Minister Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The action plan will focus on building stronger families. In this role of the family preservation worker with the intervention support programs and other things that they do, those types of things will be of key importance.
Obviously, we need to do more work to determine to the extent to which we can change either the focus of existing positions, or in the future whether or not we may require new positions. This work will actually be coordinated as part of our caseload analysis. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. The motion is carried.
---Carried
Mr. Nadli.
